I really can't shake the feeling that there is no way the Devils kept their number one pick so they could draft Stefan Matteau. I now think they were going to draft a goalie (based in part on Conte's comments) but all the good prospects were snatched up before their turn at the podium. At that point, Stefan Matteau was probably just the highest ranked player they still had on their board. He could turn out to be a decent/good player going forward, but I highly doubt this is what the Devils origiinally had in mind at 29.

Long thread. lol I see lots of hate toward his name and I think it is misplaced because of his dad. He isn't his dad and should not bear the loathing toward his dad. People tend to forget that Parise was picked 18th in the 2003 draft. The Rangers, Flyers and Isles all passed on Parise. 17 teams passed on him and look at him now. Most teams in the league would love to have Zach. Wouldn't it be great if Stefan matures into a great player? I trust Conte and Lou. The Devs have found diamonds in the rough plenty of times.. btw the Isles took Bernier as 18th in that same draft. I am willing to give Stefan a chance. I will judge his by his performance on the ice and how he conducts himself off the ice.

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DewSo long and thanks for all the fish. TIMEX RULES!!

"When we were struggling at the beginning of the year we were wondering what was wrong and trying to find reasons. At the end of the day, all we had to do was look in the mirror and the answers were right there." -- Sergei Brylin 12/2/2007

Long thread. lol I see lots of hate toward his name and I think it is misplaced because of his dad. He isn't his dad and should not bear the loathing toward his dad. People tend to forget that Parise was picked 18th in the 2003 draft. The Rangers, Flyers and Isles all passed on Parise. 17 teams passed on him and look at him now. Most teams in the league would love to have Zach. Wouldn't it be great if Stefan matures into a great player? I trust Conte and Lou. The Devs have found diamonds in the rough plenty of times.. btw the Isles took Bernier as 18th in that same draft. I am willing to give Stefan a chance. I will judge his by his performance on the ice and how he conducts himself off the ice.

That's all well and good that they had a jersey with his name on it, but how many jerseys did they have made up for the first round? My guess is more than one. Additionally, I find it way more impressive that they had jerseys made up for their picks in the later rounds, including every draft pick through the finale'. In any event, I'm not arguing that the Stefan pick was the incorrect pick at 29, I was simply stating that it felt like, if the Devils could have looked into a crystal ball and found that they would wind up with Stefan at 29, they might have thought long and hard about relinquishing that pick before the draft. Personally, I think they thought their goaltender of the future was going to be there (read between the lines of Conte's interview with T.G.) ... and he wasn't. Now perhaps the Devils brass would tell you that if they knew Stefan was going to be there at 29, they would have kept the pick for sure. However, if that was the case, you had to think there was at least a decent chance that NY would pick him right before that. And if the Devils knew that was a strong possibility, and they REALLY wanted him, they would have moved up - which they didn't do. So my conclusion is that the Devils had somebody else in mind for that slot (and he, or they, didn't last long enough). Or in the worst case scenario, Lou simply spaced the deadline (I’m not willing to go that far but it is a possibility). But again, what do any of us really know?

That's all well and good that they had a jersey with his name on it, but how many jerseys did they have made up for the first round? My guess is more than one. Additionally, I find it way more impressive that they had jerseys made up for their picks in the later rounds, including every draft pick through the finale'. In any event, I'm not arguing that the Stefan pick was the incorrect pick at 29, I was simply stating that it felt like, if the Devils could have looked into a crystal ball and found that they would wind up with Stefan at 29, they might have thought long and hard about relinquishing that pick before the draft. Personally, I think they thought their goaltender of the future was going to be there (read between the lines of Conte's interview with T.G.) ... and he wasn't. Now perhaps the Devils brass would tell you that if they knew Stefan was going to be there at 29, they would have kept the pick for sure. However, if that was the case, you had to think there was at least a decent chance that NY would pick him right before that. And if the Devils knew that was a strong possibility, and they REALLY wanted him, they would have moved up - which they didn't do. So my conclusion is that the Devils had somebody else in mind for that slot (and he, or they, didn't last long enough). Or in the worst case scenario, Lou simply spaced the deadline (I’m not willing to go that far but it is a possibility). But again, what do any of us really know?

More than likely they had 5 or 6 guys in mind, which is why they kept the pick. They figured had a decent chance of getting one of them. If they just wanted a goalie, Dansk was still on the board. Additionally, Montreal attempted to get the 29th pick to get matteau, and Lou turned down 2 second round picks from them, including #34. It seems pretty apparent that matteau was pretty high on their list.

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Official NJDevs.com Keeper of Gory Corey Schwab, Mike Peluso, Troy Crowder, Jeff Frazee, and Rich Shulmistra."The Devils are that zombie that takes an ax to the skull, a bullet to the temple and is set on fire … and yet keeps lumbering along to the annoyance of all the other zombies." - Puck Daddy

You just have to love (and laugh, hopefully) looking back at some of these awesome draft classes and see what could have been. It's great that we got Zach where we did in the first, but look at Shea Weber, Jimmy Howard, or David Backes going behind Petr Vrana in the 2nd round....yikes.

"When we were struggling at the beginning of the year we were wondering what was wrong and trying to find reasons. At the end of the day, all we had to do was look in the mirror and the answers were right there." -- Sergei Brylin 12/2/2007

You just have to love (and laugh, hopefully) looking back at some of these awesome draft classes and see what could have been. It's great that we got Zach where we did in the first, but look at Shea Weber, Jimmy Howard, or David Backes going behind Petr Vrana in the 2nd round....yikes.

I know Zach was def a steal when we got him at 17, but I forgot ANA picked up Perry and Getzlaf both in the 1st rd. That's not too bad for picks #19&28.

You just have to love (and laugh, hopefully) looking back at some of these awesome draft classes and see what could have been. It's great that we got Zach where we did in the first, but look at Shea Weber, Jimmy Howard, or David Backes going behind Petr Vrana in the 2nd round....yikes.

Has anyone heard anything about the likelihood of Vrana ever coming back to play in the NHL? Or is he gone for good?